


It's actually pretty nice... not that I would tell you

by Melinaa



Category: Layton Brothers: Mystery Room, Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series, Layton's Mystery Journey
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Family, Family Feels, Secret Santa 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 22:56:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13110228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melinaa/pseuds/Melinaa
Summary: Alfendi Layton had, in contrast to his sister Kat, never liked celebrating Christmas. But when Katrielle had invited him over to celebrate with their family and friends and Lucy had told him she'd do the whole paper work for the next month, he had no choice but coming over. And actually, Christmas isn't that bad... not that he would tell them





	It's actually pretty nice... not that I would tell you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [floralicious (slightlyraspberry)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightlyraspberry/gifts).



> So, this is what I did for the LB:MR Sectret Santa 2017 for floralicious (Tumblr)  
> I hope you like it! 
> 
> ~ Melinaa

It’s actually pretty nice… not that I would tell you

 

“You’re late”, Kat greeted her brother reproachfully when she opened the door. “It’s nice to meet you, too, my dear sister. Be glad I even decided to show up”, Alfendi Layton growled, his hair as crimson red as the scarf he had been forced to wear by no other than…

“Potty Prof, nice to see ya!” a grinning Lucy greeted him enthusiastically despite his gruff greeting. “I am glad you are here, dear brother. Lucy, what did you do to make him come?” Kat asked her friend who was already back on her way into the living room. “I had to promise him to do the paper work for a whole month but that’s worth it, don’t ya think?”

“Alfendi Layton, that’s not very gentleman-like!” Kat scolded her brother by slapping him with one of his gloves he had just taken off. When he looked up at her, Kat expected one of Potty Prof’s snarky answers but was greeted with a smile. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t prevent my other self from doing so”, Alfendi apologized. Kat rolled her eyes. “I hope Potty can behave tonight, it’s Christmas and we have a lot of guests. You may come in despite your rude behavior.”

Al followed his sister into the great living room of her flat where he was greeted with a warmth that made his ears and nose, which were still freezing, burning. He couldn’t remember a single winter when it had been _that_ cold in London.

Kat hadn’t lied at all when she’d said that a lot of people were here. The room was full to bursting point with people and Christmas decoration. Winter had always been Kat’s favorite season, as soon as it had begun to snow, she’d dragged Alfendi out to build a snowman or to put up a snowball fight that she had last most of the time. She’d always loved it when their father had started to decorate the house and helped him enthusiastically while Alfendi himself had always his in his room or somewhere else, so he wouldn’t be forced to help them.

But, to tell the truth (which Katrielle would never get to know), he had always loved to see his sister’s eyes beginning to sparkle once her favorite time of the year was near.

“Alfendi, it is so nice to see you!”, a female voice ripped him out of his thoughts. When he lifted his head, he saw Flora coming towards him smiling. She pulled him into a hug. “Hello Flora. Nice to see you, too”, he murmured trying to ignore the snide remark of his other self. **“ _It’s not like I died! Let go, that’s pathetic!”_**

_“Shut it! It’s Christmas, don’t you dare to ruin it!”_

**_“Your sister really has a bad influence on you”,_** Potty muttered but fell silent quickly after. Maybe he didn’t dislike it as much as he always said…

**_“I do, you idiot!”_ **

When Flora pulled away, she looked him over. “My, is it possible that you got even taller? Shouldn’t you actually already be fully-grown?”, she teased him a bit like she only did when she was sure not be threatened by having her tongue cut out. He laughed. “Don’t worry, Flora, I didn’t get taller. Maybe you just got shorter!”

“Hey! I definitely didn’t!”

“Okay, before you put up a fight with like everyone of my guests, you could just make yourself comfortable on the couch with Lucy!”, Katrielle interrupted them with pretended anger. Alfendi raised his hands. “Hey, why am I the bad guy here all the time? I didn’t do anything!”

“Well, maybe you should arrest yourself next time. Or is it a lie that you can catch every criminal of London?”, she went on teasing. He glared at her. “I never lie about this, dear sister. Unfortunately, no one could ever catch me, even if they wanted to”, he snarled, his hair turning crimson red again and falling in his face. Kat, who was already well-used to this, only rolled her eyes. “Calm down, Potty, I’m only making fun. But before you start threatening to cut out my tongue and serve it as Christmas dinner, I prefer to finish the actual dinner with Flora, yeah?” She flashed him a smirk before she disappeared with a “Keep Lucy company like a real gentleman!”

 ** _“How did she know that we wanted to threaten her with exactly that?”,_** he wondered but was quickly interrupted by Placid taking back the reigns.

_“YOU thought that! I didn’t! Let’s search for Lucy and the rest before Kat starts to beat us senseless with her frying pan.”_

**_“That’s basically the first good idea you had today.”_ **

Alfendi didn’t react but made his way to Kat’s huge living room where the two of them had already shared a lot of cups of tea, either at the little table next to the window or on the little green couch in the middle of the room. Sometimes it had been entirely new types of tea which Flora had created, and he had to admit that they tasted better every time. In fact, Flora had become better and better at cooking (he only had to remember the first meals she’d made for him… horrible) which basically was the reason he let her and Katrielle cook by themselves. Because his sister could make great tea just like their father, but she was as horrible at cooking as Flora had been when she was younger.

The first things Alfendi saw, were a pair of bright-yellow socks lying on the back of the couch, and Lucy’s brown hair. She had her feet placed on the little table in front of her, a Rubik’s Cube which she was scrambling (it didn’t look a lot like solving it) in her hands. The person next to her hung headfirst from the couch, wearing some white trousers and a pullover which was as yellow as her socks.

Emmy.

It has been such a long time since he’d seen her last, he had barely acknowledged her.

Alfendi grinned as he saw how concentrated she was on the Rubik’s Cube she was holding in her hands, just like Lucy. On the floor, Ernest, Kat’s assistant (and maybe more but Kat wouldn’t talk about it with her brother) and Luke were sitting around the table, Lucy had her feet on, playing a game of chess. Alfendi could see from his spot that Luke would absolutely lose against the other young man. All of them were so engrossed in what they were doing that they didn’t notice Al at all. He was already thinking about leaving again quietly when a little boy, maybe six or seven years old, looked up at him.

“Uncle Fendi!”, the boy called out so loud that Ernest accidentally flipped over the game of chess, he’d so absolutely won, while Emmy fell from the couch. Lucy and Luke only grinned at him. “I’m so happy that you’re here! Aunt Kat said she wasn’t sure if you were here tonight, but I knew you would come!”, Flora’s little son, Theodore, cheered proudly as Al picked him up and smiled at him. Theodore was always happy when he could see his uncle but Alfendi had actually no clue why the little boy was so fond of him. Of both of his sides, actually. Of course, the boy didn’t understand yet that Alfendi was basically two persons in one, but he felt when something was different. Yet, the boy had never made a difference, for him he was just his Uncle Fendi. Which made all extremely happy, to be honest. (Another thing he would never tell anybody.)

“I’m glad you made it. He wouldn’t be quiet about you coming over until now.” Luke was the next to greet him with a short hug once Alfendi hat put Theodore back on the ground. Just like Flora, Luke had always been like a sibling for Al, since he had spent most of his time with Al’s and Kat’s father once he’d come back to London. He was now a Professor at the Gressenheller University and sometimes the two men met at Scotland Yard since Luke still had an amicable relationship with Inspector Chelmey. (Yes, he was still working there, along with Barton.)

“Al! Nice to see you! Have the criminals behaved since I left for America?” Emmy grinned at him before she pulled him into a huge hug from which Al immediately tried to pull away. “Leave me alone and hug someone else!”, Potty barked. But Emmy, who already knew the quick switching of his personalities, only pulled him closer and smirked. “Aww, Potty, a bit hugging can’t hurt you! It’s Christmas!”

He didn’t try to pull away anymore but didn’t do more than enduring her hug. But if he was honest…

 _“Just admit that you actually like her hugs, it’s no shame_ ”, Placid smiled softly. Well, at least it sounded like he smiled.

**“Don’t tell me what I like and what not! It’s such a shame, I promised Kat not to cut out anyone’s tongue tonight…”**

_“Okay, I take over this situation now.”_

Anyone could see, and Emmy could even feel it, as Potty and Placid switched places when Al hugged her back and his hair turned into a shade of soft purple. After he had finally been set free from the hug, he shook hands with Ernest who was always quite cautious around Kat’s brother. He liked Placid but was mortally terrified whenever his hair turned crimson and he started to threaten him with cutting out his tongue if he would ever dare to touch his sister.

 **“I had every right to do so, okay?! Can’t anything for him being such a baby…”** , Potty defended himself but was ignored.

“What where you just doing?”, Alfendi asked Lucy who was still sitting on the couch, the Rubik’s Cube in her hands and a soft smile on her face. “We…”

“I gave them my Rubik’s Cubes to solve!”, Theodore interrupted her excitedly, grinning brightly up at his uncle. “Theodore, it’s not very gentleman-like to interrupt other people. Your uncle asked Lucy and not you”, Emmy, who was already hanging upside down from the couch again, corrected him softly. The boy bit his lip and looked up at his uncle. “I’m sorry, Uncle Fendi”, he apologized guiltily. Alfendi crouched down. “It’s okay, just try to pay more attention next time, okay?”

The boy nodded, smiling cautiously at his uncle. He smiled, too, before he turned back to Lucy. “So, you and Emmy are solving Rubik’s Cubes? How is it going?”

“I’m slowly getting the hand of it. Emmy?”

“I wanna throw that stupid thing against the next wall”, she murmured before she suddenly rolled from the couch backwards and stood up. “Here Al, you might solve it. I’m gonna check if I can steal some cookies from Flora and Kat.” She gave him the Rubik’s Cube and left, leaving back a slightly puzzled Alfendi. He looked for a moment at the cube before he sat down next to Lucy. Theodore was helping Ernest and Luke to build up their game of chess again but when he saw his uncle with the Rubik’s Cube he squeezed himself between Lucy and him. “Can you solve it, Uncle Fendi? Auntie Kat said you could solve it within a minute if you wanted to!”

That made Lucy look up from her own Rubik’s Cube interested, Luke and Ernest, too. Alfendi smiled. “Let’s see…”

Exactly fifty-nine seconds later, Alfendi gave his nephew back his Rubik’s Cube with a little smile. “There you go, Theodore.”

The boy had huge eyes as he took the cube in disbelieve. “Uncle Luke, Ernest, Lucy, look! Auntie Kat was right!”, he cheered and held it so closely to Lucy’s eyes that Alfendi doubted that she was able to see anything clearly at all. Lucy wanted to answer to him, but Theo suddenly jumped from the couch and ran into the kitchen. “Mommy, Mommy, Auntie Kat was right! Uncle Fendi is a genius!”, he shouted excitedly.

“Well, that definitely impresses him”, Luke said smiling softly to Al. “You indeed left a lasting impression in him, Mr. Layton”, Ernest agreed before he hurried to turn his attention back to the game of chess because Luke was about to move his next piece.

“Let’s see if ya’ can do it again”, Lucy grinned handing Alfendi the Rubik’s Cue she had tried to solve. He turned towards her, puzzled for a moment, before he smiled back at her and took the Rubik’s Cube.

By the time, Theodore came back, pulling Flora and Emmy with him (Emmy lost some of her stolen cookies along the way), Alfendi could hand the boy his other Rubik’s Cube. He let go of his mother’s and Emmy’s hands to take it slowly. “Auntie Kat, he did it again! Look!”, he then called out, running off to the kitchen again where Katrielle still was. Already a few seconds later, he came back with her and his two Rubik’s Cubes of which he handed one to Lucy. “Would you scramble this one, please?”, he asked very politely and with a little smile on his face. “Of course, Kiddo!”

While Theo and Lucy were scrambling the Rubik’s Cubes, Kat squeezed herself on the couch next to her brother. With Theodore between Lucy and Al, it got quite craped but Alfendi didn’t find himself being bothered by that at all (not that he would say that out loud… but he also didn’t complain. At least Placid didn’t…)

**_“That’s much too cramped! Kat can sit on the ground! But not next to Ernest, I can already picture what his hand would do beneath the table…”_ **

_“I’m really trying not to imagine that so if you stopped saying such things, it would be pret…”_

**_“Too late. Live with it.”_ **

Alfendi sighed quietly which didn’t go unnoticed. “Is Potty making your life hard again?”, Katrielle asked quietly. “Oh, is he fighting with his other self again? What about? Let me know!”, someone suddenly said right next to Alfendi’s ear. He startled, quickly spinning his head around, and found himself face to face with Emmy who was sitting on the back of the couch, doing a middle split.

“Excuse the question, but how can you sit like that?”, he asked her calmly while Potty was snapping at her inside of his head. **_“How can she dare do that?! I’ll teach her a lesson to not do that again if you just let me, you stupid, pathetic…”_**

_“Forget it. And it’s Christmas, we said no bloody tongues”, Placid reminded him._

**_“Who said that I was talking about tongues?”_** , Potty asked back with a wicked grin when Katrielle suddenly interrupted their conversation. “Yes Emmy, how can you do that? Even looking is painful”, Kat agreed. Emmy shrugged but was interrupted before she could answer.

“Wow, Emmy! I want to do that, too!”, Theo shouted which caused almost everyone to turn their attention towards Emmy. Luke and Flora only grinned at each other. Luke had experienced this himself often enough and had told Flora about it all the time, while Ernest was only wide-eyed and didn’t dare say anything. He knew from a lot of stories about Emmy’s past and her abilities and really didn’t want to get in trouble with her.

Only Lucy stayed focused. “Kiddo, concentrate or Uncle Fendi will solve the Rubik’s Cube too easy”, she told him. Theo turned back towards her. “I’m already done! Here, Uncle Fendi!” He handed his uncle the Cube and looked at him sweetly. Al only smiled, turning the Cube around a few times before he started to solve it.

 

That game went on for the rest of the evening, only being interrupted by dinner (Katrielle and Flora had cooked very well, it had tasted delicious. If Al had to guess, he would have said that Emmy had eaten the most.) Afterwards, Theo had dragged Alfendi with him to make him solve some more Rubik’s Cubes. Somewhere along the evening, Katrielle had asked him with a wicked grin if he wanted to see Alfendi solving the Rubik’s Cubes even faster. It had only taken a bit teasing and joking to change the color of his hair and to make Theodore even more excited.

To be honest, even if he had complained all evening about what was disturbing him and how stupid that game was and how much he wanted to cut out everyone’s tongue, he actually liked the evening. And he, the so called Potty Prof, loved how his nephew’s eyes were sparkling with joy and excitement every time he solved a Rubik’s Cube, and how he cheered when he solved the Rubik’s Cube even faster than the last time. (Not that he would tell anyone in here. But it should be pretty clear since he wasn’t mean to Theo at all. But, then again, both of his sides had always loved the little boy.)

He had loved the way too noisy dinner, the stories about America Emmy had told them, the sparkle in Flora’s eyes when she had explained how real people came back to Saint Mystère and made the village vivid again. The new citizens even carried on the love for puzzles the robots had had so you could still find a little puzzle to occupy yourself with at every corner of Saint Mystère. Lucy had then looked at Flora and asked her if she could come over one day to see the village herself. Flora had happily agreed.

Al had ignored Potty’s constant complaining indulgently but for what both of them were quite happy was that Emmy was sitting between his sister and Ernest. Neither Potty nor Placid were sure what exactly was going on between the two but the desire to protect his sister was as strong as it had already been when the siblings had been kids. Not that he would tell her that. Or anything of what he was thinking.

But, what Al actually didn’t like was the game of chess which he was currently losing. Against Emmy and Theo, who had insisted on helping her.

“Don’t tell me that you, the great Potty Prof, who captures every criminal of London, is losing a game of chess. Against Emmy and a seven-year-old”, Katrielle mocked him. She was sitting behind him on the couch, together with Lucy. Potty turned around and glared at her. “Shut up or I’ll cut out your tongue”, he hissed so quietly that Theodore couldn’t hear it.

“Ah, ah, Potty, we said no threads on Christmas!”, Lucy reminded him chuckling. “But Kat is right, it’s really poor that you are losing against Emmy and Theo.”

“Hey, we are not that bad at chess!”, Emmy defended them but laughed along with Kat and Lucy. Alfendi growled.

He didn’t like this game.

But he liked that Christmas.

Not that he would tell.


End file.
